Minnie Driver: Baby Henry Brings 'Hilarity and Joy'


Minnie Driver didn't have to research her role as a pregnant mom in Motherhood. Driver was expecting a baby when she signed for the comedy starring Uma Thurman.

Now, Driver is learning as she goes while raising her son Henry, who spends almost as much time on film sets as his mom.


Talk about method acting.
"They needed an actress to play pregnant, but I offered them the real thing. I was so pregnant in this film that I was in a kind of different world. You shouldn't really be on a film set when you're that pregnant, you need to be at home with your feet up. I wouldn't do it again. They took care of me. They were lovely and very sweet, but you should be getting ready for your baby to come and taking it easy, you shouldn't be out making movies."

 Getting ready to become a mom.
"I've been around kids my whole life. My sister has three children and it's like I knew what it was like. But, honestly, my mind was just on the impending birth and the immediate future. Having a little baby is very different than dealing with your kids when they're older. You're not juggling school schedules and stuff. I'm sure that all will come, but the first year of Henry's life has been just an insane earthquake for me."

Henry is getting an early introduction to filmmaking.
"Now, I'm back to work and taking him with me on film sets. It was incredibly challenging. The first one I did, Betty Anne Waters with Hilary Swank, when Henry was five months old, was really hard. We were in Michigan in the middle of winter and it was ten below. I was like, 'What am I doing?'"

Why her recording career has been on hold.
"There's no time. If he's sleeping, I'm trying to sleep and when you're breast feeding, you're the milk machine. There's no time to, like, pick up the guitar and write a song, much less go for a walk or have a beer. It's like, 'Good luck.' But I'm going back in the studio and I'm just about to start another record."

And a special live performance.
"I just came back from Nashville where I played at The Grand Ole Opry. Unbelievable, standing on the stage with Ernest Tubbs, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. It was absolutely daunting."

What's on her iPod.
"I've been listening to this band Delta Spirit, which is on my record label and they are unbelievable. I've been listening to a lot of Brandy Carlisle, I think she has one of the most beautiful voices, and Alison Krauss. I could listen to the 'Alison Krauss Songbook' forever."

No price is too great to pay to be a mom.
"I waited a long time to have children because I had this career that was kind of like my kid, it required as much nurturing and as much attention. Now, I've discovered there's no amount of hassle that could ever be bigger than my love of Henry and the hilarity and joy that he's brought into my life and continues to bring."

Internet mommy support.
"I use the site called 'Mamapedia' that's amazing, where you can ask questions and mothers across America can answer, so you can get maybe ten answers and it's kind of a cool resource. But sitting down and reading about somebody else's tough experiences of being a mother, you're suddenly like, 'My God, I've got a kid and I don't have time to read about this. I've got to go do it."

Trick or treat.
"This Halloween, he's going to be the Crocodile Hunter and I'm the crocodile. My crocodile head just arrived in the mail. I got Henry a little blond wig because he doesn't have much hair and he's going to be Steve Irwin, may he rest in peace."

An uncertain future.
"I always took the best thing that came along. I've never had the luxury of being really choosy. I've never planned out years in advance the films that I'm going to be making, and nobody was ever structuring the financing of a movie around me. But, good stuff always comes, although it's a little frustrating not knowing what I'm going to be doing next."

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